Nearly 5 Months Later, Ubisoft’s The Lost Crown Is A Stellar Side-Scroller

Ubisoft is one of the biggest video game studios of all time. Over the years, the studio has published many exceptional titles, including some classics like the Assassin’s Creed games, Tom Clancy titles, Far Cry, and even Watch Dogs.

However, the past few years have not been the best for Ubisoft games. Once a titan in video games, the past few releases have been quite underwhelming. It did recover a bit after its recent titles, Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Prince of Persia, but fabulously tarnished it soon after releasing Skull and Bones.

What Does The Ubisoft Market Look Like

If Ubisoft is a great studio, then there should be no need to discuss its latest successful game. However, Ubisoft has not been doing well like many AAA studios. Its reputation with games has tanked, as have its services. Recently, it has canceled many of its upcoming titles and failed to deliver on those it released.

The chart above illustrates the decline in sales for Ubisoft games in recent years. For quite some time now, Ubisoft has stuck to the formula of chasing popular trends despite its continuous failure in market sales. The only thing working for Ubisoft right now is its original franchises, such as the AC titles or Star Wars games.

The Last True Ubisoft Game That Players Loved

Narrowing the answer to this question is impossible as games have always been diverse for a diverse group of people. However, I have browsed many forums and condensed the answer to two titles. The first one is Watch Dogs 2, but that’s an extremely old title with many a woe behind it. The second one is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which will be the main focus here.

One of the most recently released Ubisoft games, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, was loved by gamers worldwide. Based on the mostly positive critic and user reviews (sourced via Metacritic), it qualifies as the best game in the first category. It is a Metroidvania adventure game released in January this year and cemented in the memory of occasional platform enjoyers.

What Players Loved About A Ubisoft Game?

The main thing that players look for in games is originality. Whenever someone does something different and breaks the stereotypical norms of a genre in a fun way, they always succeed. Ubisoft was one of the most novel studios in the last decade, releasing original titles in franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and many more.

Just like Assassin’s Creed when it first came out, it changed the meta of combat games with its unique interpretation of stealth in combat and paired it with its inspiration from important historical events. Similarly, With Prince of Persia, players loved a new fresh take (for that time) for a platformer that really stood out and quickly started building a good reputation.

Players generally want to experience something different than what’s been happening right now. It doesn’t necessarily have to be new; it must be inspired. A great example is the gameplay in Baldur’s Gate 3. It is not new but novel, inspired by many small niche details from the old DnD and RPG styles.

Will Ubisoft Reach These Heights Again?

That question can only be answered by time. Fortunately, we did not have to wait long, as Ubisoft just published XDefiant, an arena shooter game. The initial release did not go overwhelmingly positive for Ubisoft, garnering only a 7/10 from IGN and an average score of 3.5 out of 5 from Metacritic users.

This game doesn’t disqualify Ubisoft from a competitor for 2024, but it did hit quite hard. After its poor release, it lost quite a few points on the stock market, as shown in the image below from Google Finance. Granted, it is recovering, but the overall past 12 months have been a ~13% loss for Ubisoft.

However, Ubisoft still has some hope left for 2024. Perhaps one of its most anticipated original titles, Star Wars Outlaws, will also be published by Ubisoft later this year. Its success is paramount to future Ubisoft Games as its failure could mean more cancellations of future titles and potentially less funding for known franchises like Assassin’s Creed and its new titles like Project U.